…but is set to further erode the atmosphere in the stadium as the first three rows of the student section have been excised for additional handicap seating. I guess it's inevitable that would eat out a chunk of the students because money is the primary motivator for the department, but that continues a long tradition of crapping on the student section without offering anything in return that started with the terribly-designed (and perpetually half-empty) club seat overhang that eliminated the last four rows on that side of the arena and made a further four or five partially obstructed when you stand, as students do. With every renovation the capacity gets smaller and the prices go up.

On the bright side, it appears that opposing parents are sitting next to us this year. [insert evil laugh here]

Maybe the student section has mellowed enough in the past five years to make this workable but the last time this happened, hockey parents moving into the students to find who was talking about their boy were an annual occurrence. Michigan's asking for it.

Descent into Captain Queeg-dom: 75% complete. Mark Dantonio's presided over two mass player brawls, picked multiple players up from jail to drive them to practice, seen William Gholston treat Denard Robinson's head like a beer with a twist-off cap and punch Taylor Lewan without lifting a finger (the Big Ten levied the suspension, remember), had a public hissy fit after last week's EMU game, and he's just getting started.

As I was checking out the Brayfriend Experience in Athens, Michigan State was playing Ohio State in East Lansing. A film kerfuffle and eye-gouging incident have obscured the true WTF moment from that game:

Will Gholston laid motionless on top of Braxton Miller for a good 30 seconds after that hit, wobbled off the field, and then returned. The sideline reporter dutifully related that Gholston "had the wind knocked out of him."

That's appalling. Anyone who hits the video above can see the ref tapping Gholston in the back to get up; he does not get up. He's just taken a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit and lays there for 30 seconds. Does it matter if he's actually unconscious or just incapable of moving for 30 seconds? No. That guy is done for the day, unless you're Dantonio. The blatant lie about what happened to him is just the cherry on top.

I guess it's nice that Dantonio has the same disregard for the safety of his own players as he does for his opponents, though. (Remember who was Robert Reynolds's DC: Dantonio.) He's got that going for him.

I assume this will once and for all end the bible-thumping, square-jawed discipline dean media meme, right?

BONUS: hey, guess what everyone who said words to the effect of "good" in the thread on this on the board got? Banned.

In other MSU news. Their OL took another hit when starting center Travis Jackson went out for the year against OSU. They inserted journeyman senior Ethan Ruhland at center after the injury and are rolling with a redshirt freshman at LG; Blake Treadwell has been bouncing in and out of the lineup with injury. If Michigan had suffered the injuries they have already we'd be sitting here in sackcloth and ashes—okay, more sackcloth and ashes—gibbering.

OSU's Jordan Hall tore his PCL and is doubtful for next week but apparently will be "evaluated on a week to week basis."

Uniforms. No Z. We'll see how the motion shortz go with these things but these actually look pretty slick from the rear:

This will all be ruined by Muff the Magic Block M on the front, I know.

If only anyone had paid any attention last year. Gholston a draft faller:

William Gholston*/DE/Michigan State: Gholston failed to impress during the Spartans' devastating conference defeat at the hands of Ohio State. Though he continued to play despite being injured in the first half, Gholston provided no impact and was minimally productive. In five games this season, he has posted just a single sack.

I thought they were nice. I may have been wrong.

Yeah, but have they had two people on Survivor? Georgia has. I saw it on their jumbotron.

that head movement can cause a concussion, it doesn't always cause one. A neck injury, which could be equally or more serious, could occur. An old colloquialism for injuries that could be similar to this is "whiplash". In fact, this is pretty much what they seem to think occurred from the reports they've released.

Has Yost changed that much since I graduated in Dec 2003 that it's safe for the parents to be next to the students again? I remember when we played Northern MI with their player Bryce Cockburn (correct pronunciation co-burn, but that sure wasn't how we were pronouncing it every time he hit the ice) and his family was getting really pissed off at our rude chanting. I also remember a fight nearly breaking out at a Miami (NTM) game I think in the 02-03 season.

Has the student section at Yost been cowed that much by the university? We were the most intimidating place to play in college hockey for a reason. If that's not the case anymore, I am sad panda.

I still cover my kids ears sometimes at the games and say that I can't understand what they're chanting either.

New Yost is beautiful. It's still Yost and will be just more awesome. The aluminum stands will probably make it even louder. Also, no more worries if you drop something that it will be forever lost to the troll-king who lives under the stands (although I have donated empty bottles of Jim Beam at points in the past).

I hope to someday in the near future get back up to campus for a hockey game, I haven't been to one since 2004, unlike football which I was last there in 2009. I'm glad to hear that Yost hasn't lost all of its rowdy charm.

In fairness to MSU, one of the ways you could get the wind knocked out of you is if your cerebellum was temporarily severed from your spine, leading to a loss of signal from the brain to instruct the lungs and diaphragm to function properly.

In 2010 M vs ND Dayne Crist was out for part of the first half after taking a hit. He was held out because he was blind in one eye. That sounds to me like a possible concussion. He is out for the rest of the...

Has the ref, Miller or any other player commented one way or another what they saw? Given what I saw live and then on film, I don't trust the "wind knocked out of him report". Now, if someone say a little less biased were to weigh in, then I'd change my mind.

If you posted on here that it was good the Gholston got knocked out, you got banned. Because that is a terrible sentiment to express. He may play for MSU, but he's just a kid playing football and no one should get knocked into next week playing some game.

There were some people that were cheering at Gholston's injury because of Gholston's past games versus us. The banhammer was justly deployed, because you should never be cheering for someone to get hurt, especially hurt severly enough to be laying motionless on the ground for awhile.

I may hate the Buckeyes and the Spartans with a burning passion, but I'd never want to see one of their players have their careers ended due to on field behavior.

Gholston is a villain and he's earned that status based on his past dirty play, but he doesn't deserve people wishing him harm. If you want to hate somebody for how last year's shenanigans when down, hate Narduzzi and Dantonio who essentially gave unspoken approval for that kind of conduct by their players on the field. Gholston is a jerk for being overly aggressive, but he's just doing what his coaches are teaching him to do and teaching your players to try and take opposing players out is reprehensible.

Instead of putting it on a ref, who has no medical training, maybe the NCAA should provide an independent, unbiased doctor to every game that has to clear players to be back on the field, after first getting cleared by their own team doctor. As long as the process was transparent to prevent the doctor from holding out a player because he's bet on the game or something like that, I think that could be a good safety feature for the game.

That being said, I doubt it will ever happen. Too many people would complain the first time one of those refs holds out a superstar player and then the team loses. It'd be like after the Seattle - GB game, public outcry would be insane.

Last year, after all of the accusations, letter-writing, internet film viewing and flack, St. Dantonio had his players be especially careful about personal fouls in the following (Wisconsin?) game. I think the first thing he said in the post-game interview was "no personal fouls". So maybe there will be less than sixty minutes of unnecessary roughness in the Michigan game, and Denard's cap does not twist off because everyone's awareness is now raised.